This month’s planning meeting will give council some post-Thanksgiving work to do in the form of a couple of small development projects that aren’t based around the south end, and some cultural heritage insight for the local history nerds out there. It’s unlikely to be the most intense planning meeting this year, but it will still be very busy.

NOTE #1: Delegates will be able to appear at this meeting via telephone, but you do have to register with the clerks office before 10 am on Friday October 9. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.

NOTE #2: The meeting will be closed to the public, though it will be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.

68 Albert Street Heritage Permit HP20-0005 -Normally, building a detached garage in the rear of your property is not a cause for a trip to council, but it does if your house is in the Brooklyn and College Hill Heritage Conservation District. The planned garage meets the standards of design expected for this heritage area, so staff is asking for council to rubber stamp their approval.

Request for an Extension of Draft Plan of Subdivision 23T-11503 635 Woodlawn Rd. E – Back in November 2015, council approved a subdivision at this property, which included 117 single-detached units, 61 on-street townhouses, 66 apartment units, a park, and mixed use buildings. The developer is asking for a five-year extension since the project has only started phase 1a and staff is inclined to permit it. If approved, the new deadline will be November 18, 2025.

Public Meeting 66 Duke Street Proposed Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments 0ZS20-008 – The property just north of Alice Street is zoned “B.4-1” (Specialized Industrial), but the developer wants to make it an “R.4D-??” (Specialized Infill Apartment Zone) to build a four-storey, 22-unit apartment complex on the property. For added controversy, the site will feature exactly 22 parking spaces in a ground floor garage, which works out to one space per unit, with presumably no room for visitors’ parking. No final decisions will be made on this development, and council will vote only to receive the report.

Statutory Public Meeting Report for 520 Speedvale Avenue East File OZS20-006 – Sandwiched between Delaware Avenue and Carmine Lace just east of Victoria Road, the property owner would like to change the zoning from “Low Density Residential” to “Medium Density Residential”. The plan is to build 64 stacked, back-to-back townhouses accessed from a private driveway on Speedvale Avenue East, with total of 84 off-street parking spaces with 13 dedicated visitor parking spots. A vacant church on the property will have to be demolished in order to build the townhouses. No final decisions will be made on this development, and council will vote only to receive the report.

Recommended Cultural Heritage Action Plan – What is this going to do? It’s a document that will outline how to implement polices relating to heritage and heritage protection in the Official Plan, it will prioritize actions to aid in the protection of heritage features, recommend incentives for promoting cultural heritage, and look for future cultural heritage landscapes (CHL) within the city limits. At the moment, the City of Guelph is apparently considering three CHLs that they’re calling high priority, which are the Exhibition Park area, the St. George’s Park area. and an area identified as the Ward – West, which is the western most part of the Ward from the river to Huron Street. The plan also has directives for future financial incentives to protect heritage buildings, and a plan to protect old and abandoned barns in Guelph. You can read the full Cultural Heritage Action Plan here.